Supportive housing is a proven, cost-effective solution for helping individuals experiencing homelessness and living with serious mental illness and other disabilities achieve stability, independence, and dignity. By combining affordable housing with voluntary support services, supportive housing creates a foundation for recovery and long-term success. Yet housing alone is not enough. Many residents continue to face loneliness, social isolation, and barriers to maintaining their mental health and well-being.

To address these challenges, Fountain House and CSH are exploring Community-Centered Housing (CCH). This emerging approach draws on principles of social practice and the Clubhouse model to strengthen community, connection, and belonging within supportive housing. Through this work, we are examining how intentional opportunities for participation, meaningful relationships, and mutual support can complement housing and services and contribute to recovery and well-being

This webinar will introduce the CCH approach and explore how community itself can serve as a therapeutic intervention. Presenters and panelists will engage in a dialogue about the opportunities and challenges of collaboration between supportive housing providers and clubhouses, helping to shape a new approach that strengthens recovery, promotes social connection, and reimagines what housing can achieve.

Panelists

Deborah De Santis
President & CEO, CSH 

Deb De Santis is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH), the country’s largest Community Development Financial Institution devoted to housing solutions for those at risk of homelessness. Ms. De Santis has led CSH since 2007, tripling its lending and support toward the creation of over 450,000 permanent stable homes for individuals and families struggling through multiple challenges, including the trauma of homelessness, lack of healthcare, and intergenerational poverty. Ms. De Santis has spearheaded the reorganization of CSH to deepen its focus on data-driven results, innovative funding models such as Pay-For-Success, and expansion into high-need communities. In 2019, Deb was recognized as one of the top 10 leading women in the affordable housing industry by Affordable Housing Finance Magazine. 

Ken Zimmerman
CEO, Fountain House 

Ken Zimmerman is the CEO of Fountain House, a national mental health nonprofit that empowers people living with serious mental illness through direct services, practice innovation, and policy change.  Prior to Fountain House, Ken founded and co-directed the Mental Health Strategic Impact Initiative (S2i), a think-and-do tank that uses a social justice lens to catalyze change in mental health policy and practice.  Ken was previously the Director of U.S. Programs for the Open Society Foundations, where he led initiatives involving over $100 million in grant-making to advance equality, democracy, and justice. He has also served in senior policy positions in the Obama and Clinton administrations, including as Senior Advisor to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.  Following the death of his son Jared in 2016 as a result of his mental illness, Ken has focused on the nation’s broken approach to mental health—specifically calling on, and aiding, mainstream philanthropy to take advantage of the immense opportunities to transform mental health that now exist.  A graduate of Yale and Harvard Law School, Ken is a Distinguished Fellow at NYU’s Furman Center and teaches at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. 

Andy Houltberg 
CEO, Breakthrough | Episcopal Social Services 

For more than 20 years, my work in nonprofit leadership has been rooted in a simple belief: people need more than services, they need community, purpose, and a place to belong. I am passionate about the Clubhouse Model and supportive housing because it creates communities where people living with mental health challenges are known, valued, needed, and empowered to build meaningful relationships, pursue employment and education, and discover their strengths. My work is focused on strengthening and expanding Clubhouse communities so that more people have access to belonging, opportunity, hope and a safe place to call home.  

Dave Williams
Member, Breakthrough Clubhouse 

Dave Williams is a Wichita native and Consumer Advocate dedicated to transforming mental health systems through lived experience. Having navigated housing insecurity and co-occurring disorders, he fights for practical, dignified solutions for the underserved. Dave actively champions the Clubhouse model as a vital continuum of care and has proudly helped establish multiple new clubhouses across the state. Dave’s work also includes local advocacy to secure metropolitan identification for transient communities. Inspired by a passion for music and deep roots in the recovery fellowship, he is excited to connect and build a stronger community. 

Ian Campbell
Senior Director of Innovations and Training, Fountain House 

Ian Campbell is the Senior Director of Innovations and Training at Fountain House.  He’s worked at Fountain House for twenty years and has worked in housing, employment, and designing new programming like their Recharge Station and Community Apartment Program.   

Hannah Olodan
Member, Fountain House 

Hannah Olodan is a proud member of Fountain House’s Community Apartment Program and has been instrumental in the design of the program as well as the Young Adult Community Housing Team (YACHT).  She’s been with Fountain House for almost two years and active in both CAP and the young adult program.